Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act

The issue of fair pay for women is again before Congress. With an unprecedented number of women breadwinners now in the workforce and hurt most by the economic slump, we need strong legislation supporting pay equity more than ever.

It’s now up to the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which the House has already approved with strong bipartisan support. This new act is needed in addition to the recent approval of the Ledbetter Restoration Act, which served only to regain lost ground from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling.

The National Organization for Women says the Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen employer incentives to prevent wage discrimination and close “longstanding loopholes” that have allowed it. The two acts together, says NOW, will create healthier workplaces “where wage discrimination is not tolerated.”

Women have worked long and hard for equal rights in the workplace, and they deserve this support.

We, the undersigned, ask our US Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act .

The Act aims to go beyond the Ledbetter Restoration Act, which restored rights lost in the last decade, to ensure real progress in closing the wage gap for good.

No act can completely make up for the loss in quality of life for working women over the past centuries due to wage inequality, but this act can at least help women get beyond those losses to a better future for all.

Protecting women’s wages and benefits also protects children many women raise on their own. It helps ensure better health care and child care, as well as better education for our society’s youth, which can only benefit society as a whole.

Studies show that it’s not poverty itself that is most harmful to a society, but economic inequality.

We urge the Senate and all our state senators to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, and we thank you for your support of women’s right to equal pay.